"What's the difference between a musician and a park bench?" Williamson said. "A park bench can support a family of four."

The point: Trying to make a living as an instrumentalist is a big ask — doubly so if your instrument of choice happens to be made of brass.

Still, Williamson, 46, is giving it a go.

And despite battling cancer, he recently set up a nonprofit called Doors Open Jazz, which he hopes will grow to include a teaching center where underserved children and adults can take music lessons.

After a sometimes fitful career as a furniture salesman, draftsman, fire-sprinkler designer and drug store worker, Williamson has settled into a job playing trumpet in an Atlanta-based wedding band called Rhythm Nation. He doesn't make a ton of money, he said, but the work is steady and it feels like a calling. The band plays gigs almost every weekend, Williamson said, although the winter months are slow.

"We play everything from James Brown to Bruno Mars," he said.

Williamson was a late bloomer musically. He didn't take up the trumpet until he was 19 years old, he said.

Growing up in the Middle Tennessee town of Gallatin, he played clarinet and bassoon in elementary and middle school, but then drifted away from band and into sports in high school. He came to Chattanooga to wrestle collegiately in 1991, but gave up the sport after about three months, he said.

"I thought to myself: What am I going to be, the world's skinniest WWF wrestler?" muses Williamson, who wrestled in the 130-pound weight class.

Almost on a whim, he picked up the trumpet and started hanging around the edges of the UTC jazz band. In high school, he had soothed himself at night by listening to jazz radio. Trumpeters Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis were his favorite artists.

Almost 10 years behind his peers in musical experience, Williamson said he began practicing the trumpet three or four hours a day. Sometimes he even slept with his horn.

"I'd wake up sometimes with the trumpet in my hand," he explained. "I practiced ALL THE TIME."

At UTC, he became a music education major. One day, he was invited to play with the No. 2 jazz band, "even though I didn't even know all my fingerings," he said.

"I had finally found my [musical] voice, and it was the trumpet," he said.

Before he left UTC, Williamson participated in jazz band, marching band, pep band and concert band, he said. But because he wanted to be a performer, not an educator, he began looking for a practical way to earn his daily bread. He eventually moved to Chattanooga State, where he got a certificate in drafting.

Music was sort of a side gig to his day jobs over the years. The list of artists he has played with is long. Most recently he has been associated with local reggae band, Milele Roots.

When Rhythm Nation offered Williamson a living-wage job last year, he jumped at the chance.

Also last year, Williamson said, he sought treatment for numbness in his left arm and found out cancer had attacked his endocrine and nervous systems. He is still undergoing treatment, but his symptoms have improved, he said.

Meanwhile, Williamson said he feels a calling to expand his nonprofit.

Although the effort is in its infancy, Williamson was able to form a board of directors and charter the group last month. He sees a need for a path to music for people like him who don't take up an instrument until after high school.

"It's something that's been building in my heart and that I've been praying about," he said.

"There are so many people I meet who tell me how much they love our music," Williamson explained. "And then they tell me, 'I wish I played the piano, or I wish I'd stuck with the guitar.'"

Williamson's message is that it's never too late for a person to find a path to music.

Let's see a park bench play the oboe.

Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645.

Getting Started/Comments Policy

Getting started

1. If you frequently comment on news websites then you may already have a Disqus account. If so, click the "Login" button at the top right of the comment widget and choose whether you'd rather log in with Facebook, Twitter, Google, or a Disqus account.

2. If you've forgotten your password, Disqus will email you a link that will allow you to create a new one. Easy!

3. If you're not a member yet, Disqus will go ahead and register you. It's seamless and takes about 10 seconds.

4. To register, either go through the login process or just click in the box that says "join the discussion," type your comment, and either choose a social media platform to log you in or create a Disqus account with your email address.

5. If you use Twitter, Facebook or Google to log in, you will need to stay logged into that platform in order to comment. If you create a Disqus account instead, you'll need to remember your Disqus password. Either way, you can change your display name if you'd rather not show off your real name.

6. Don't be a huge jerk or do anything illegal, and you'll be fine.

Chattanooga Times Free Press Comments Policy

The Chattanooga Times Free Press web sites include interactive areas in which users can express opinions and share ideas and information. We cannot and do not monitor all of the material submitted to the website. Additionally, we do not control, and are not responsible for, content submitted by users. By using the web sites, you may be exposed to content that you may find offensive, indecent, inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise objectionable. You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of the Times Free Press web sites and any content on the Times Free Press web sites, including, but not limited to, whether you should rely on such content. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you acknowledge that we shall have the right (but not the obligation) to review any content that you have submitted to the Times Free Press, and to reject, delete, disable, or remove any content that we determine, in our sole discretion, (a) does not comply with the terms and conditions of this agreement; (b) might violate any law, infringe upon the rights of third parties, or subject us to liability for any reason; or (c) might adversely affect our public image, reputation or goodwill. Moreover, we reserve the right to reject, delete, disable, or remove any content at any time, for the reasons set forth above, for any other reason, or for no reason. If you believe that any content on any of the Times Free Press websites infringes upon any copyrights that you own, please contact us pursuant to the procedures outlined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (Title 17 U.S.C. § 512) at the following address: